TToN will also have limited timed events. When you go to rest the world will change.

The Witcher, and very few other games outside the ego masturbation genre, pertain to matters that affect not the character, but maybe the player. In PS:T character interaction was really a vehicle to bind the player to the gameplay, not an end in itself. I hope that this will be the same with Tides of Numenera. PS:T reached way beyond escapist fantasy boundaries, something the Witcher or any other RPG I can think of haven't managed to date.

I would say this is at the very top of my list of anticipated games. :)

That sounds incredibly vague.

Are you saying Geralt, the character, wasn't affected by his actions in any of the Witcher games, seriously?

What do you mean the player isn't "bound" to the gameplay in Witcher? It makes no sense at all.

Are you saying the Witcher doesn't reach beyond "escapist fantasy"?

Could you clarify?

No, I mean that exactly, the effect was limited to Geralt. Or do you really say that you took anything away from playing The Witcher?

What I mean is that PS:T established a link between the player and the game that isn't found in most games. And that was not in the first place due to the story - it was about the very personal nature of choices and dialogue.

That's why I'm saying The Witcher is firmly in ego masturbation escapist fantasy territory. You're playing a kewl d00d who acts and affects the world around him, but it's also very game-y and limited to that fictional world. IMO PS:T transcended this and made it a very personal experience (I've also seen people claim that this is in part because the game-y elements of PS:T were admittedly weak).

The Witcher 2, definitely. I was very moved by it - and I think it had a lot of poignant things to say about how wars start and what happens during them.

Fair enough, if you think so.

I didn't experience said link, but then again - I never bothered finishing it, as the dreary and pretentious walls of text, terrible character progression, constant simplistic combat, and the off-putting locked-down avatar killed it for me.

That's certainly an opinion. One that makes little sense to me, as I think The Witcher games are way more than that.

Also, I'm a much bigger fan of blunt and overt delivery over the deliberately opaque and "mysterious" stuff in PST. I think I might have appreciated it more as a younger person, though, when I was capable of seeing depth in verbose opacity.

But that's ok, we don't have to agree.

I guess it comes down to what you, personally, got from PST - and I can appreciate that.

which still leaves the question if TToN will be innovative in any way, shape or form - I think yes, but let's wait and see ;)

I'm p certain you'll give it a go regardless and enjoy it, just like PoE.

Now that's what I'd call a stretch, to put it mildly. :)

I give almost everything a go, and yes - I did enjoy PoE for a number of hours :)

That said, I haven't even considered going back to my still-in-act-1 game that I abandoned a few weeks ago.

These throwbacks just aren't doing it for me.

TW3, on the other hand…. wow!

indeed!

You're right on both counts: no other game has offered those things, and this game promises them… but those are still just promises. Plenty of games make such promises.

So you are a full what the codex would call a pompamole games lover.

I still tend to come back to old games or new games with the "retro" feel. How good the experience will turn out really depends on your mood, probably more so than what people think..

I remember starting BG2 some 3-4 years ago and it was totally "meh", couldn't stand it for long. Then a year ago i started it again and i was totally absorbed by it from the start, it just clicked instantly because that's what i felt like playing (more than i probably understood).

Gaming is not any different than for example creating music or having sex or whatever your hobbies are :D if you're not 100% in the mood, it just won't be that great of an experience.